Number of homeless people in Ottawa has grown to 3,000, local charity says

A tented encampment is seen in Toronto on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

The number of homeless people in Ottawa has grown to 3,000 this year, a local charity said in a new report on Wednesday.

Ottawa Mission CEO Peter Tilley said more than 500 of them are living on the streets.

He said the homeless shelter returned to full capacity last year for the first time since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ottawa is seeing higher levels of food insecurity.

“Food insecurity has risen from one in seven to one in four households,” he said. “Forty-six per cent of those who are homeless stated that they needed support with food insecurity.”

Ashley Potter, manager of front-line services for the charity, said more than 20 per cent of people who seek help from the Ottawa Mission are asylum seekers.

“Mental health distress, substance use, the loss of affordable housing, and food inflation coupled with an influx of asylum seekers meant that in addition to people sleeping on mats in our chapel, many more slept on chairs in our lounge,” Potter said.

“While the number of refugees seeking shelter is starting to decrease in Ottawa, our numbers show that need for shelter beds exceeds availability in this city.”

Potter said clients have told Mission staff that federal officials at the airport directed them to the shelter.

“Why are federal officials directing people fleeing war, violence and persecution to our shelter, where they have to sleep in our chapel or lounge?” Potter said.

Last month, the City of Ottawa scrapped plans to build temporary shelters to house asylum seekers because their numbers were declining.

Ric Allen-Watson, director of food services at the Ottawa Mission, said the need to distribute meals has also increased in Ottawa over the last few years.

“Before the pandemic, our annual meal total was just over 495,000 meals,” he said in a news release. ”This year, we will likely serve about 1.3 million meals. To be blunt: that’s insane.”

The Ottawa Mission is calling on all levels of government – and candidates in the current federal election – to help address homelessness and food insecurity with measures such as affordable housing and increased social assistance rates.

More than 80,000 people in Ontario were homeless last year, according to a report from the province’s municipalities. There are now 25 per cent more people living in shelters or on the streets compared to two years ago, the report found.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario, which represents 444 municipalities across the province, said a fundamentally different approach is needed to tackle the homelessness crisis, one that prioritizes long-term housing solutions rather than temporary measures or policing solutions.

It said that new approach would require an $11-billion investment over 10 years to create more than 75,000 affordable and supportive housing units.

The municipalities also said $2 billion over eight years is needed to ensure all people living in encampments are properly housed.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2025.

Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press